Intercultural Design: Task Compilation & Reflection
6/2/2024 - 29/3/2024 (Week 1 - Week 8)
Seh Zi Qi/ 0355872/ Bachelor of Design(Honours) in Creative Media
Module Name: GCD60804/ Design Principles
Final Compilation & Reflection
LIST
Project 1: Proposal
Project 2: Field Study
Project 3: Final Project
PROJECT 1: PROPOSAL
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"A proposal to concretise ideas, supported by research, for a final design revolving around a given theme that reflects students’ understanding and interpretation of global issues and design aesthetics."
Requirements:
- The general theme is “Cultural Sensitivity in Design”
- You are to study a cultural phenomenon, or a particular subculture that is perceived as ‘sensitive’, and “frame” your study within the chosen theme.
- You are to convey this cultural aspect without altering the actual facts but within a presentable interpretation and adaptation that raises awareness from the viewers.
- Produce some preliminary ideas on how to visually express your interpretation using design language. Each idea is to be supported by a short rationale. Conduct visual research to help expand your idea generation.
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Before starting with drafting, we were tasked to pick our group mates. We were Group 32 and my group mates were:
- Chooi Cheng Yue (Group Leader)
- Adriena Tan Yan Zi
- Chan Wan Qing
- Thanaphorn Daensaad
- Elysa Wee Qi En
- Seh Zi Qi
Once we were done with picking our group mates, we went ahead with drafting our topics in a Google Doc. Each of us had to write a topic that we felt would be a good idea to go in depth. I decided to write 2 topics, the cultural symbolism of the butterfly and a game called Venba where the premise is a South- Indian family that moved to Canada to start a new life, facing different challenges in a new environment.
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| Fig 1.1, Drafting topic ideas, 21/2/2024 |
Once we were done with writing, we decided to present our topics quickly and chose 3 final topics for our proposal. The topics we chose were by Adrienne, Han and Cheryl which were Cultural Sensitivity in Game Design: Creating Inclusive and Respectful Gaming Experience, Inaccurate Cultural Representation in Video Game Characters and Cultural Symbolism of the Dragon.
Idea 1- Cultural Sensitivity in Game Design: Creating Inclusive and Respectful Gaming Experience:
Examine the cultural dimensions of game design and player experience.
Discuss approaches for game developers to create inclusive and culturally sensitive gaming experiences that appeal to players from diverse cultural backgrounds, avoid stereotypes, and promote cross-cultural understanding.
The over-revealing outfit design on characters could be improved to more safe and culturally friendly ones
Idea 2 - Inaccurate Cultural Representation:
Idea 3 - Cultural Symbolism of the Dragon:
In the west, dragons are the symbol of evil, described as the best that personifies the sin of greed, envy and hubris in the Christian Methodology.
Dragons of the west were also said to be winged, horned, and able to breathe fire.
In the east, dragons are admired and symbolises great power, good luck, and good strength.
Dragons of the east were wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence.
Our group then decided to split into 3 teams to go in depth of the topics we chose. We wrote the basic problem statement, research problem and ideation for each topic, we also did thorough research before giving the proposal and recorded presentation towards our lecturers.
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FINAL PROPOSAL
Fig 2.1, Proposal Presentation of Group 32, 1/3/2024
Fig 2.2, Recorded Presentation of Group 32, 1/3/2024
PROJECT 2: FIELD STUDY
"Students will conduct a data gathering collection process about the culture with relevance to the theme and your research objectives."
Requirements:
- The students are required to collect visual, oral, textual and tactile
- artefacts that would be part of their research materials for the ideation
- in Project 1 (proposal).
- All collected artefacts and materials must be
- recorded, kept and documented, accompanied by necessary
- information such as the type of artefact and material, its purpose, its
- symbolism, its cultural/historical background, and more, depending on
- the kind of artefact and material.
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Before we did our data collection, the lecturers chose our topic which is Idea 1, Cultural Sensitivity in Game Design: Creating Inclusive and Respectful Gaming Experience. So we decided to do more research on our topic to get a better grasp using the feedback gotten from Dr Charles.
These are the articles we used for research:
For our data collection, we decided to do interviews and a survey, mainly focusing on interviews as it gives a more authentic experience and response from the recipients.
The questions, both interview and survey, will be about 4 Genshin Impact characters called Raiden Shogun, Yae Miko, Xingqiu and Venti. We have sketched outfits that fit them in more appropriate attire that suited their standing, status, workplace and personality.
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Fig 3.1, Sketches of new outfits for 4 characters, 3/3/2024 |
The interview had 7 questions:
- Can you describe your approach to character design in video games, particularly regarding the portrayal of clothing and attire?
- How do you balance the aesthetic appeal of character designs with considerations of cultural sensitivity and realism?
- What factors influence your decisions regarding the clothing and attire of characters in video games?
- How do you ensure that character clothing choices are appropriate and respectful, especially when it comes to avoiding overly sexualized representations?
- How do you incorporate diversity and representation into character clothing designs, taking into account factors such as body types, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds?
- What do you think about our sketches on redesigned outfits for characters looking too sexual in their original outfits?
- What advice would you give to aspiring character designers who are interested in creating more inclusive and respectful representations of clothing in video games?
We were all tasked to find someone to interview, I decided to interview my friends who are in fashion design and my other friends who are in the anime club.
Fig 3.2, Interviews for data collection, 6/3/2024
For the survey, we found some character design artists on Instagram. We wanted to get their opinions from professionals with lots of experience, this also gives us a non-biased view of our data collection since we don't know any of the artists on a personal level.
Here are the artists:
https://www.instagram.com/baleys816?igsh=MW9wYjk0NGNoYmlzZA==
https://www.instagram.com/ari.genshin_skins?igsh=MWg5djl1eDZqemR6cQ==
https://www.instagram.com/yumibatgerel?igsh=MWJiNHZscXhyOTRnZQ==
https://www.instagram.com/129gamestudios?igsh=MXN4cno4YXo1eHY1ZA==
https://www.instagram.com/shashakukou?igsh=MXEyNHh4cjhmODVkcQ==
https://www.instagram.com/moonlike_com?igsh=MXJicWY5MzN0enQ0NA==
https://www.instagram.com/little_dchan?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
These are the survey questions:
Do you believe that clothing choices for some characters in video games are often overly sexualized?
Have you ever felt uncomfortable or offended by the clothing choices of characters in video games due to cultural insensitivity or over-sexualization?
How would you rate the overall design appeal of the sketches featuring redesigned characters with more covered-up clothing? (1-5)
Do you feel that the redesigned clothing in the sketches is more appropriate and respectful compared to the original designs? (Insert sketches of the redesigned clothes)
How do you think the redesigned clothing impacts the portrayal of female characters in video games? (Positively/Negatively/No impact/Other)
Do you believe that characters with more covered-up clothing are more relatable to a wider audience?
Would you be more likely to play a video game featuring characters with redesigned clothing that is more covered up?
In your opinion, does the redesigned clothing enhance the character's personality and traits?
Do you have any additional comments or feedback regarding the sketches featuring redesigned clothing for video game characters?
How do you balance the aesthetic appeal of character designs with considerations of cultural sensitivity and realism?
How do you ensure that character clothing choices are appropriate and respectful, especially when it comes to avoiding overly sexualized representations?
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FINAL DATA COLLECTION
Fig 4.1, Data Collection Presentation of Group 32, 8/3/2024
PROJECT 3: FINAL PROJECT
"Upon the completion of the research, data collection, participation in all class lectures and tutorials, and presentation of a complete proposal and research data, students are to produce visual design outcomes related to their interpretation of the given theme."
Requirements:
- Utilising the data collected from the research trip, students are to produce visual design outcomes that reflect their interpretation and definition of “Framing”, bearing in mind to consider cultural and aesthetic aspects, balanced with their design knowledge.
- Various directions and approaches can be engaged in, such as experimental design/art with the use of manual/digital or a combination of both media.
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Before we went ahead with creating our design outcomes, we decided to take the input from the interviews and surveys into account and redesign Raiden Shogun and Xingqiu since both of those designs had the most mixed reviews.
Raiden Shogun's design made her look more sexualised as the slits on the side guide the viewers' eyes towards the crotch area by default; her ruffled neck area also didn't make sense because it felt out of place and it didn't tie back to the research we conducted. To tackle this issue, I just covered her using the hung shoulder kimono she had and put her in an actual kimono, this was scrapped as it didn't look right so we just decided to lower the current skirt she had.
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| Fig 5.1, Raiden sketch redraw, 18/3/2024 |
Xingqiu's design was unliked by some as the flaired pants didn't fit his figure and made him look more like Zhongli, another Genshin Impact character, instead of his own. I proposed that the short pants idea isn't bad as long as it's not too short since it's universally known that boys often wear shorts within fiction. I had also created different coloured versions: similar colours to the redraw, monochrome brown colours and original colours; most chose the original colours because the colour combinations looked better and didn't look like Zhongli.
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| Fig 5.2, Xingqiu sketch redraw, 20/3/2024 |
Once we were done with the redraws, we went ahead with figuring out what we should create. We decided on the wishing banner and collab events like the LihoTea collab. Considering the wishing banners and collab event splash art aren't the same, we decided to split Raiden Shogun and Yae Miko into the wishing banner while Xingqiu and Venti into the collateral art.
The task was given to Elysa and I to create the splash art, but we were held up by our Design Principles final projects that we had to split the work to everyone else. Thankfully, we finished our work so I was relieved.
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| Fig 5.3, Wishing banner splash art, 20/3/2024 |
Fig 5.4, Collateral splash art, 20/3/2024
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FINAL PROJECT
Fig 6.1, Final Presentation of Group 32, 29/3/2024
Fig 6.2, Recorded Final Presentation of Group 32, 29/3/2024
FEEDBACK
Consultation 1
Dr Charles said our concept was alright but we had somewhat fought with him on our topic as we wanted to provide more culturally appropriate clothing while he liked that current video games are going against the norm; we basically needed to do more research
Consultation 2
The different ways to conduct research can be vast and some can also sway the opinions of others.
REFLECTION
Experience
The experience I had during this module was quite a stressful yet fulfilling one. I feel quite proud since I had struggled through multiple ups and downs to get to where I am, I’ve also never tackled this module before which makes it all the better. The stressful part of this module was the amount of things needed to do within the data collection and also my inability to think I was able to do everything myself, I thought that I wouldn’t need help for the final part but I decided to ask for help with it and it was much more manageable in the end. I need to fix my own time management as well as that can always affect me in the future if I don’t work on myself now.
Observations
From what I’ve observed from my own group mates and other teams, they all had unique perspectives and knowledge regarding different topics and areas of their own expertise. It was quite fun to work with my own group mates since we get along quite well, both in our work and our friendship; I had thankfully found them during the first week and was able to smooth sail for most of the project.
Findings
From what I’ve found during this module would be that research is incredibly important and getting increasingly important in this day and age, where the younger generations are very carefree when it comes to cultures, myself included. I know that research was an important aspect when it comes to character designs but to go in-depth and search for those different cultures made me realise that there’s more to creating a “pretty” character and to know what makes them so unique and stand out from the crowd. I’ve also found out that it’s impossible to please everyone in the gaming industry as everyone has their own views, morals and thinking; to tackle this, we have to know the importance of research so as to not offend and create cultural appropriation within an industry that’s supposed to have a lot of creative liberties.
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